Free Republic

Politics is dominated by sound bites meant to generate emotion, not rational discourse. One of the most dominant sound bites in recent North Carolina politics is that the law now allows people to carry "guns in bars." Upon hearing those three words, "guns in bars," people recoil in horror. The very idea that North Carolina is full of bars where people are packing heat is enough to make tourists avoid the state altogether. However, when one compares the old gun law with the new one, things make perfect sense. On October 1st, North Carolina's absolute ban on handguns in...

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - The family of a suspected thief is lashing out after their son was shot during an armed robbery. Relatives of Adric White, 18, believe the Good Samaritan who opened fire should have “just left the store.” “If his (the customer) life was not in danger, if no one had a gun up to him, if no one pointed a gun at him - what gives him the right to think that it's okay to just shoot someone?” said the relative. “You should have just left the store and went wherever you had to go in your...

Prejudicial harassment of certain citizens, simply because of their life choices or cultural values, is an ugly pattern among the left. An African American woman was recently told by a school principle that – even though her child attended the school – she was no longer permitted to engage in school activities, volunteer at school functions, or even “trespass” on school property. . . The laughable reason given in the school’s decision to ban the parent? The parent’s concealed weapon permit “frightened” the school’s principle. According to WRDW in Augusta, Tanya Mount posted a picture of her new concealed carry...

When lives are on the line, what saves lives -- not politics – should guide policy. Gun control advocates used to warn about blood in the streets if we didn’t tighten gun laws, but as concealed handgun permits in the U.S. have doubled from 2007 to now, murder rates have fallen by 18 percent. Enter a new strategy: playing the race card, along with claims that allowing people to defend themselves means that whites will hurt blacks. But this strategy ignores the crucial fact that blacks kill over 91 percent of blacks and that whites kill 84 percent of whites....

After ranking the Best States for Gun Owners in 2013, we’re back to rank the Best Concealed Carry States. Since federal law specifically addressing the issuance of concealed carry licenses does not yet exist in the U.S., individual states are left with the task of regulating concealed carry laws within their own borders. Over the past few decades, most states in the country have gradually shifted their carry laws to become less restrictive. Despite fewer restrictions, legally carrying a concealed firearm remains vastly different from one state to another—and in some cases one town to another. The diversity of laws...

While people like Piers Morgan, Barack Obama and Dianne Feinstein continue to push fear-mongering over guns, a recent story makes the point that guns are not evil, but rather a good deterrent to evil. This couldn't be more apparent than at a recent party that took place in Arizona, where a citizen who was carrying his weapon probably saved everyone at the party from a gunman with a rifle. 10-things-not-to-do-when-carrying-concealedA 27-year-old man got into an argument at with some party goers. After a time, the man was asked to leave, and he did. A short while later he returned. Armed...

When I saw the story, my jaw dropped and I was almost afraid to read on, lest I find the headline too good to be true. But it’s true–ABC News obtained an exclusive interview with Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble at the organization’s annual assembly in Cartagena, Columbia, taking place this week. For the news report summarizing the interview, ABC ran this headline: After Westgate, Interpol Chief Ponders ‘Armed Citizenry’ You read that right, 2nd Amendment guardians. The man in charge of Interpol, the venerable international law enforcement organization, has gone on record suggesting that gun-owning citizens are a realistic...

This is a story of a mass shooting that might have been if not for the efforts of a concealed carrier. However, don’t expect to see this story on the national news since there were no fatalities. Several guests, in their 20′s and 30′s were attending a party at a Glendale, AZ home when one of the guests, identified only as a 27 year old male, got into an altercation with several people at the home. The 27 year old was asked to leave, which he initially did. However, shortly thereafter, the 27 year old returned, this time armed with...

Wisconsin has reached a concealed weapons permit milestone. Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen announced Tuesday that permit number 200,000 was printed Monday at the Department of Justice’s secure processing center in downtown Madison. Wisconsin became the 49th state to license people to carry concealed weapons in 2011 with the passage of Act 35. The law took effect Nov. 1 that year and Van Hollen announced extra staffing to handle the expected rush of applicants. Van Hollen said the DOJ continues to receive 500 to 1,000 applications a week. “The dedicated staff is able to process the majority of these applications...

Up until this week, Starbucks had been neutral when it came to its gun policy, which meant that the coffee giant respected local laws regarding firearms. This policy was widely respected among gun-rights advocates—a Starbucks Appreciation Day has even been organized at stores throughout the country for the past few years—but it also drew the ire of anti-gun groups and lawmakers who have been pressuring Starbucks to change its ways. Although the coffee chain didn’t reverse its policy toward guns, on Wednesday the CEO issued a statement essentially saying firearms are unwelcome (but not banned). Even though this wasn't...

This past Thursday, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled unanimously in People v. Aguilar that the Illinois law that banned carry outside the home was illegal under the Second Amendment. Yesterday, this ruling caused Cook County Circuit Judge Ellen Mandeltort to reverse herself and drop charges against Deafalla Haddad. Mr. Haddad had been charged with the unlawful use of a weapon after he was found in possession of a handgun during a routine traffic stop. Cook County Circuit Judge Ellen Mandeltort last week denied Deafalla Haddad's request to drop the charges. But the Supreme Court ruled Thursday that part of...

Let’s be clear: I’m not a real Starbucks fan in the first place. The coffee is horribly expensive and, frankly, you can get a better cup for a quarter of the price at a Quick Trip. Interestingly enough, even McDonald’s has stepped up their coffee quality lately. Dunkin’ Donuts is good also, but I prefer to sweeten my own coffee, thank you, so don’t ask me how many Sweet ‘n Lows I want. Another thing …. I stopped going to Starbucks when they came out and openly supported Obama for a second term. I guess it goes with the territory...

Rights: Colorado voters on Tuesday ousted two leading supporters of stricter gun control laws, saying "ready, aim, fired" to those who would deny movie patrons and college women the right to armed self-defense. One would think that Colorado, the site of the tragedies at Columbine and the Aurora movie theater, the purple state where President Obama accepted his first nomination amidst faux Greek columns, would be the least receptive of states for the arguments of Second Amendment defenders. Colorado state Senate President John Morse and Sen. Angela Giron found out differently on Tuesday as they were ousted by gun rights...

The Bloomsburg Fair has decided to reverse their policy of banning guns at the event following enormous feedback and threats of boycott.Facebook pages calling attention to the ban and calling for a boycott had attracted thousands of fans in a matter of days.According to NewsItem.com, President Paul E. Reichart said the board will not be checking for or banning lawfully concealed weapons.“While we cannot prevent those who want to commit unlawful acts, we recognize those who are law abiding citizens and will continue to handle it on a case-by-case basis,” he said. “As far as we’re concerned, it’s a dead...

(Jackson, MS) The Mississippi Supreme Court has ruled a Hinds County Circuit Court judge erred when he granted a motion delaying House Bill 2 from taking effect. That is the open carry law in Mississippi. The judge ruled the bill was unconstitutionally vague. The Supreme Court decided that decision was incorrect. House Bill 2 would allow people without a permit to carry firearms as long as they are within sight. Concealed weapons still require a permit.

Here’s another example of concealed-carry permits being effective in everyday life. A woman in the Houston area experienced a traumatic event in which her concealed carry handgun came to the rescue. A woman whose husband was being accosted by six men in a Houston area Denny's pulled her concealed carry handgun from her purse and opened fire on the robbers. According to Click2Houston.com, the wife was in the restroom, and when she came out she saw her husband lying on the floor, the group of robbers nearby. Police say she then "pulled her gun and shot at them." It appears...

So states State v. Christian (Ore. Aug. 15, 2013): [W]e conclude in the first instance that the ordinance [limited carrying] does, to some extent, burden protected conduct falling within the scope of the Second Amendment’s guarantee. [Footnote: ... Although Heller did not define the scope of the right to self-defense outside the home, we read the opinion as recognizing a right to self-defense outside the home to a degree yet to be determined by the Court....] But the court concluded that the ordinance at issue doesn’t restrict the right too much, partly because Oregon is a shall-issue state and people...

In the last installment, I said that it was the coach who sent the prosecution team in to try to win a game that never should have been played. The police had determined they didn’t have probable cause. The highly respected state’s attorney who had responsibility for the case, Norman Wolfinger, apparently agreed. When the plaintiff-orchestrated cause celebre created public outcry, Wolfinger scheduled the matter for the grand jury. But Florida Governor Rick Scott turned it over to Angela Corey, the state’s attorney for the Jacksonville area, to act as special prosecutor. Some have blamed Scott for this. I can’t,...

While there were two lawyers at the defense table, there were three at the State’s: Bernie de la Rionda, John Guy, and Richard Mantei. With about a hundred lawyers to pick from, knowing her office would be in the spotlight, State’s Attorney Angela Corey wouldn’t have put anyone on the team she thought would make her look bad. Mantei was third chair, and the lowest guy on the totem pole gets the scut work in any organization. For instance, he was the one they sent in to argue that the state had proven its case when it hadn’t during the...

Watching the Zimmerman trial in 2013 was like watching the OJ Simpson trial in 1995: while the general public got a hell of an education on how these things work thanks to live TV trial coverage, those “in the business” were assessing the skills and strategies of the key players. The face of the defense was that of a two-man team, Mark O’Mara and Don West. The general consensus was that they did a helluva good job, and that O’Mara was the best lawyer in the courtroom during that trial. Some criticized him for not being harsher on some witnesses;...